A Mermaids Adventure
by lilyaudet
Summary: When a mermaid makes a deal with the Dark One it sends her on an adventure she couldn't imagine. Hook/Ariel
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Here is my attempt at writing a Hook/Ariel fic. I hope you all enjoy it. I must say MorgansGurl Part of His World, and A Bee Cee's Poor Unfortunate Souls, has really inspired me to give it a go. IF you have yet to read them you probably should. Anyways tonight Ariel makes her entrance on Once and I am super excited! =D

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Chapter I

She watched them from her spot on the side of the boat, her crimson red hair blowing in the wind. They were dancing to music. She loved to watch humans dancing, the way they moved she found breathtaking. It was one of her many favorite pass times.

She loved everything that had to do with humans. Their freedom to explore, different lands and oceans. She had once followed a ship miles on the sea but eventually had stopped and decided to go home, not knowing what she would find in the waters or if she'd ever see another one of her kind.

She enjoyed watching fishermen go on their ships and would even help them when they were not bringing in anything. Though they never knew of her presence. Her favorite was the pirates she would see. They seemed to travel all over and engage in battle with other ships on sea. She had taken a pocket watch from one of them when they fell into the ocean.

She spent most of her days above the surface pulling herself onto ledges of ships, or simply watching from the ocean at a safe distance. She learned many things about the human world by listing to them speak to each other, the stories they would tell. She would even go to near by docks hiding underneath to watch and learn from the humans that she wished she could partake in their world.

One of the women dancing fell to the floor. She had been drinking a lot of liquid from a barrel that Ariel determined made humans lose their balance and seem to make them happy because the woman was grinning from ear to ear.

The woman laughed and the man she had been dancing with helped her to her feet. He gave her something shinny and the woman smiled then suddenly came running to where Ariel was. Her eyes widened and she quickly moved hiding out of view as the woman leaned over the ship and emptied the contents of her stomach. As soon as she was gone Ariel returned to her spot and noticed what the man had given the women she had left behind.

It was a silver seashell attached to a chain, a necklace Ariel noted. She reached her hand out and took it in her hand to exam it closer. She looked back to the humans and then jumped off the side of the boat with the necklace in her hand swimming quickly away as if they would catch her.

She swam to her secret place. It was a little sandy place surrounded by rocks only accessible by the ocean, or possibly by land if you could manage to climb the rocks that lead to it without a wave pulling you under. She pulled herself out of the ocean and onto the little bit of land dragging herself across to a large boulder where she had hidden a chest. She opened it up and began to look through the many things she had stolen from ships. She didn't dare hide it under the sea where her father or even one of her sisters could find it. They would call her childish for holding onto human trinkets, and give her a lecture of the dangers.

"Hello dearie"

Ariel snapped her head up to see a man sitting on a rock above her. His skin looked greenish and shinny as if he had just come out of the water, but his clothes were dry. She looked around there was no easy access to her secret place. "Who are you? A wizard?"

The man chuckled; he popped up onto his feet balancing on a small rock. "Rumplestilskin at your service." He said with a bow.

"Rumplestilskin?" Ariel said hesitantly. "I think I've heard of you…. The Dark One?" She asked.

"Precisely so then you've heard I make deals. Which is why I am here." He jumped down sitting on the rock once more. "Are you interested in having legs?" He smirked.

Ariel looked at him her heart skipping a beat. Excitement ran through her and any fear she had of the man disappeared. "You can do that?"

"They don't call me the Dark One for nothing." He said with a humorous tone to his voice. "What I want in exchange is a promise that you will fetch me some squid ink."

"Squid ink?" She asked surprised at such an easy task.

"Not jut any squid ink, but the rarest squid ink."

"You mean…"

"Yes. I could probably get it myself but its such a boring task."

"Its dangerous, and they're hard to find."

"Yes but you don't need to find it now. When I decide I want it I'll come and find you."

"But how? I'll have legs."

"Awe and a fin when you hit water."

She stared at him for a minute debating on whether to accept. She could die trying to get that ink for him. Though she would get to have legs, and get them now. It was practically everything she ever wanted. "Alright."

Rumplestilskin giggled a gleeful sound and suddenly there was a scroll in his hand, and a quill in the other. "Contracts are binding" He said, "but I do require one more thing before I give you legs."

"What?"

He pointed to her tail. "Three scales from your fin."

"Why?"

"Call me a collector of things." He told her. "Do we have a deal?"

Ariel held her hand out for the quill, and as he placed it in her hand she had a moment of hesitation. She took a deep breath and signed the parchment before she could have any second thoughts. She wanted her legs.

Rumplestilskin giggled again and the scroll and quill were gone replaced with a knife he handed her the hilt. "Now the scales."

Ariel took the knife and on her upper side cut into herself biting her lip at the sharp sting. Her eyes watered but she soon had three scales removed from her tail. With a bloody hand she handed him back the knife and three of her scales. "Now I'll get legs?"

Rumplestilskin grinned snapped his finger and Ariel began to feel a dull ache in her tail. She looked down at her long green fin as the ache began to increase in its magnitude. She cried out as her whole body suddenly began to feel like it was on fire.

Her nails dug deep into the sand as she heard a loud tearing noise. Her fin was splitting into two and slowly began to morph into legs. She clenched her eyes tightly at the pain.

The burning feeling began to fade and turned back into a slow dull ache. She opened her deep ocean blue eyes blinking away tears now staring at two long alabaster legs.

She wiggled a toe and grinned touching her new pair of legs. She had legs, two beautiful legs. She snapped her head up to where Rumplestilskin was sitting but he was no longer there. She looked back at her legs she ran her hands along them. There were three crescent moon shaped scars on her upper thigh but besides them she found them perfect.

She attempted to get to her feet and immediately fell. This was going to take some practice.


	2. Chapter II

A/N: Thank you everyone who is reading this, and if you haven't seen the other story I wrote I would be very grateful if you read it. I had a great idea for this story and I feel like I have sort of lost it. But I am going to push forward and assure you it will get better. I keep thinking I am writing somewhat long chapters then realize they are actually kind of short... perhaps the next one will be longer. Anyways thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

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Chapter II

Ariel slipped on the clothes she had stolen from the near by shipping port. Humans she knew had a thing about clothes. She was sure walking around naked would not go well on her first adventure on land.

As soon as she had practiced walking a few times she had grabbed the things she had collected and with a leap of faith jumped back into the ocean. Just as the Dark One had said her legs immediately turned back into her long emerald green fin. Which was not nearly as painful as it was when she got legs. It was more of a very strong constricting feeling until her two legs merged into her fin.

Once she was on land again, completely on land it took about ten seconds for her tail to turn back to legs. It hurt just as much, and she hoped she would get use to it.

She was now wearing a simple blue dress that had a white apron with large pockets. There was a symbol of a black anchor with an octopus wrapped around it imprinted on the chest of the dress.

She opened her treasure chest and emptied the contents of it dumping it into the pockets. The silver seashell necklace she decided to put on. Feeling like this was the best way to continue on land she began the deep incline up from the sandy beach into the woods, towards where she stole the clothes.

It took her longer than it should have to get back to where all the people and ships were. She would stop at every little thing in the forest. Flowers she had never seen, berries, bushes, and a furry little creature that immediately ran away from her. It was all so beautiful.

As she entered the docks the massive amount of people bustling around and yelling was slightly overwhelming. Something had to be going on for when she had observed this place from the sea it was rarely this crowded.

Despite the amount of people and some of their extreme rudeness Ariel couldn't help but smile. It was all so exciting and new.

"Hey, you."

Ariel turned to the female voice. It came from a plump woman wearing a dress that was the same as the one she wore. Only exception was she had a white bonnet on her head covering her hair.

"Are you going to just stand there all day or help me?" The woman nearly yelled at her.

Ariel pointed to herself. "Are you speaking to me?"

"Who else would I be talking to?" She lifted a box and held it out for her.

Ariel took the object slightly hesitant, and simply stood there as the woman grabbed another box.

"Don't just stand there, hurry up and get it on the ship."

Ariel looked around, "which ship?"

The plumper woman rolled her eyes. "Follow me." Which Ariel did. "She told me she'd be sending you with me, but I had no idea you'd be so dumb. And why are you barefoot?"

"Barefoot?"

"Your shoes where are they?"

"I don't have any."

The woman scoffed as Ariel followed her up the plank onto the ship. It was a huge ship, and there were many men on it in uniforms with swords on their hips. There were a few women on it as well. Some wore the same clothes as Ariel and the plump woman and others wore beautiful gowns.

She followed the woman down some stairs, which lead them to a storage room. The woman put the box down, and Ariel put hers down on top of it and began to look around. She picked up a mini trident and grinned. The woman suddenly slapped her hand, which caused her to drop the mini trident and pull her hand to her chest.

"Stop touching things." She sighed heavily. "You've never worked for a royal ship before have you?"

Ariel shook her head.

"Well my name is Darcy, and you are?"

"Ariel."

"Well Ariel what kinds of dishes do you know how to cook?"

"Dishes?"

"Food, meals. Can you make soup?"

Ariel shook her head, she had heard of soup before when listing to people but she had no idea how to make it.

The woman sighed yet again. "See if I ever do that woman a favor again. She sticks me with someone ignorant."

Ariel had stopped listing to the woman and looked around the room. There were shelves packed with what she was sure was food items. There were large white disc shaped items and clear cylinders.

Darcy was snapping her fingers at her so she turned her attention back to her. "Are you foreign?"

"Foreign?"

"Yes, from a different land."

Ariel shrugged. "Of sorts."

"Well you have to wear shoes, I don't know if walking around barefoot is common where you are from but it is not acceptable here. I suppose I could let you borrow some of mine."

There was a sudden jolt of the ship and Ariel clumsily fell onto her behind. "What was that?" She asked as she looked up at Darcy.

"Never been on a ship before either huh? We just left port."

"Left port? You mean, away from the land."

"Yes."

"But, I had just gotten there. I was going to explore."

Darcy raised an eyebrow this girl was confusing and very frustrating. It was almost as if she had no idea she was here to help cook, and serve the men of the Royal Navy and the prince himself. "Well now you get to explore the open sea and once we get to Metten you can explore that."

"Is it land?"

"It's the kingdom were going to. The prince is to meet his betrothed there. Now get up and I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."


	3. Chapter III

A/N: To all of my lovely readers of this story I am very sorry for the delay in update. Got really into my other story and started writing more for that then this one. So I would love for you to read that one as well as this one. ; ) I think the next update for this one will be a lot sooner since the next chapter I have in mind I am very excited to write.

I usually re read my chapters and fix errors, however I really wanted to get this posted so I have not. I apologize for any errors. Enjoy!

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Chapter III

It had been about a month since Ariel had gotten her legs. She had spent 10 days on the ship with Darcy and other ladies helping take care of the men on the ship. The first few days were very rough. Darcy had yelled at her consistently for not knowing what she was doing. She couldn't very well tell her she was a mermaid and this was her first experience with humans. She had burnt the main meal one night and Darcy couldn't understand how a woman could burn a pot of soup. She had slowly gotten a hang of things and could make several dishes. Her specialty was seaweed soup.

She had collected a bunch one late evening when everyone was asleep. She had missed the salty taste of it. It was something she had eaten regularly in the sea. So one day when she was in charge of making the soup for dinner she decided to experiment.

When Darcy had realized what Ariel had done she was furious, but thankfully when the prince decided to try it, everyone else did. They all very much liked it and it had become a requested meal. Darcy questioned her on how she got the seaweed but Ariel wouldn't tell her.

When they had arrived at Metten Ariel was ecstatic, finally being able to truly use her legs for what they were meant for. To explore the land she was never allowed to before. However she only got two days to truly explore it for they only spent a week in Metten and Darcy made her do a lot of errands for the ship instead of what she really wanted to do.

She supposed she could have simply run off, but she had sort of grown attached to Darcy and the other women aboard the ship. It was even sort of fun to make food. She felt like Darcy was even beginning to enjoy her company.

They began to head back to the princes kingdom with his new future queen in tow. Spending another 10 days for the journey back. Darcy was kind enough to give her some books to read on the days she got to have to herself. She wanted to explore the whole ship but Darcy told her she wasn't allowed. They were able to go above deck, but that was the most freedom they had. She broke the rules however and in the middle of the night she would sneak out of her bed and wander.

The night crew was very small so it was very easy to sneak around. They spent most of their time above deck, which made it hard for her to jump off the ship and swim around when she wanted but she managed. The fear of one of them seeing her tail was an adrenalin rush that she couldn't help but enjoy.

Some of the night crew would spar with their swords and Ariel would watch them. They saw her one night but didn't seem to pay attention to her. They were young men and seemed to enjoy a woman admiring them. Which was exactly what she did, it was something she wanted to do.

On one of her nights of exploring she had found the door to the brig. The brig however was empty; there were no prisoners on their ship. It had a moldy smell, and was oddly humid. She couldn't go much further into it since the rest of it was cells, and the door to them were locked. There were three cells in total. Two very small ones, enough room for someone to lay on the floor and a larger one that could hold several men. That one had chains in it attached to the walls of the ships. She had put her arm in between the bars of the cells out of pure curiosity.

"I don't think a prison cell is a very nice place for such a beautiful lady."

Ariel had spun around so quick her hand had banged against the bars of the cell and she rubbed it to ease the pain. The man who stood in front of her was tall and lean. He had light skin and a crooked nose. His eyes were such a dark brown they looked black, and seemed too far apart. His hair was curls of gray with a few silver streaks through it. "I… I was.."

"Just exploring?" He asked with a smile. "I've seen you above on the deck. Watching the young ones spar. They enjoy your audience. Even have begun to make a wager on which one of them can win your heart."

Ariel put her hand to her chest. "Am I in trouble?"

The man shrugged. "What no one knows won't hurt them. Should be more careful next time though. You left the door wide open. Shouldn't you be asleep anyways? You'll have to wake up early to make the prince and the rest of the crew breakfast."

"Are you part of the Royal Navy?" Ariel asked him ignoring his statement. He didn't wear one of the uniforms.

The man simply shrugged.

Ariel waited for him to expand on his gesture but after a moment of silence and him clearly not going to she asked his name instead.

"Eugene, and you are my dear?"

"Ariel."

"Very beautiful name for a beautiful lady. Now I think for tonight you should head to bed."

Ariel couldn't help but smile at his comment and simply nodded. She walked passed him and headed back to bed.

When they had arrived back to the land Ariel first took her steps they only spent two days there for the Royal Navy was heading out again, however this time without the prince.

They were now out on open sea once again heading for a new land. The ladies in the kitchen talked about some treasure the king wanted and that was the new mission of their ship.

"Darcy." Ariel asked the woman as they lay in their beds.

"Yes little one."

"Do you ever not spend time on this ship?"

"When the Royal Navy is simply patrolling our borders we do. But this is our job, you are more then welcome to find a different job. Perhaps the palace needs a new cook."

Ariel shook her head, though she knew the older women couldn't see her. "All I've wanted was to be on land and explore the world. I guess working with you I get to see the world."

"Be on land… Were you raised on a ship lady?"

"No I just meant.. uh.. explore the land."

"Yes, well this way you get to see other lands, and that's exciting isn't it?"

"Yes."

Ariel continued to lay in her bed until Darcy and the two other women who shared the room were sound asleep. She then sneaked out and headed to the deck.

She found where the young men would spar and sat on the floor to watch them. They smiled at her, and she smiled back. It had become her nightly routine on the ship.

There was a heavy thud and Ariel turned to se Eugene sitting next to her. "Haven't seen you since our little run in, in the brig. I suppose you've been more careful."

Ariel smiled. "Have to learn quickly if you don't want to get in trouble." She was rewarded with a soft laughter. "Think they will teach me?"

Eugene laughed again but much louder. "To sword fight? You're a lady, ladies don't fight. If you even get caught with a sword in your hand, you will get in much trouble. Not only by Darcy, but I am sure by the captain."

Ariel frowned. "So women are suppose to cook and clean, but we can't fight?"

"Yes."

"Where I come from women and men did things equally."

"Yes, but this isn't wherever you are from. This is Duvall."

"Technically, it is not."

"But you are aboard a ship of Duvall men."

Ariel frowned. "I don't want to cook for the rest of my life."

Eugene reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't frown, its very unpleasing on such a beautiful girl like yourself."

Ariel continued to frown.

"I also come from a different land. Where women were allowed to pick up a weapon."

Ariel's eyes lightened up. "Oh? Where is that?"

"A forgotten land, destroyed by war. My mother was the one who actually taught me to use a sword."

"Was she good?"

"She was the best." Eugene said with a grin. "I'll tell you what. Despite my better judgment I'll teach you to use a sword."

"Really?" Ariel said beaming with joy.

Eugene laughed again. "Yes. You remind me of my sister. She was curious like you and very excitable. It has to be a secret though."

"Of course." It wasn't like she was unable to keep a secret.

"You'll have to keep coming here. Otherwise your young suitors may get suspicious. A few hours before dawn, we'll meet in the brig, starting tomorrow." He rose to his feet then. "Good night Ariel."


End file.
